Santiago de Compostela, in
Galicia, the centre of devotion to this Apostle, is neither the
cradle nor the principal seat of the order. Two cities contend for
the honour of having given it birth, León in the kingdom of that name, and Uclés in Castile.
At that time (1157–1230) the royal dynasty was divided into two
rival branches, which rivalry tended to obscure the beginnings of
the order. The Knights of Santiago had possessions in each of the
kingdoms, but Ferdinand II of León and Alfonso VIII of Castile, in
bestowing them, set the condition that the seat of the order should
be in their respective states. Hence arose long disputes which only
ended in 1230 when Ferdinand III, the Saint,
united both crowns. Thenceforth, Uclés, in the Province of Cuenca, was regarded as the headquarters of
the order; there the grand master habitually resided, aspirants
passed their year of probation, and the rich archives of the order
were preserved until united in 1869 with the "Archivo Historico
Nacional" of Madrid. The order
received its first rule in 1171 from Cardinal Jacinto (later Pope
Celestine III), then legate in Iberia of Pope
Alexander III.

Unlike the contemporary orders of Calatrava and Alcántara, which followed the severe
rule of the Benedictines of Citeaux, Santiago adopted
the milder rule of the Canons of St. Augustine. In fact at León
they offered their services to the Canons Regular of Saint Eligius in
that town for the protection of pilgrims to the shrine of St. James
and the hospices on the roads leading to Compostela. This explains
the mixed character of their order, which is hospitaller and
military, like that of St. John of Jerusalem. They were
recognized as religious by Pope Alexander III, whose Bull of 5 July
1175, was subsequently confirmed by more than twenty of his
successors. These pontifical acts, collected in the Bullarium of the
order, secured them all the privileges and exemptions of other
monastic orders. The order comprised several affiliated classes:
canons, charged with the administration of the sacraments;
canonesses, occupied with the service of pilgrims; religious
knights living in community, and married knights. The right to
marry, which other military orders only obtained at the end
of the Middle Ages,
was accorded them from the beginning under certain conditions, such
as the authorization of the king, the obligation of observing continence during Advent, Lent, and on certain festivals of the year, which
they spent at their monasteries in retreat.

The mildness of this rule furthered the rapid spread of the
order, which eclipsed the older orders of Calatrava and Alcántara,
and whose power was reputed abroad even before 1200. The first Bull
of confirmation, that of Pope Alexander III, already enumerated a
large number of endowments. At its height Santiago alone had more
possessions than Calatrava and Alcántara together. In Spain these
possessions included 83 commanderies, of which 3 were reserved to
the grand commanders, 2 cities, 178 boroughs and villages, 200
parishes, 5 hospitals, 5 convents, and 1 college at Salamanca. The number of
knights was then 400 and they could muster more than 1000 lances.
They had possessions in Portugal, France, Italy, Hungary, and even Palestine. Abrantes, their first commandery
in Portugal, dates from the reign of Afonso
I in 1172, and soon became a distinct order which Pope Nicholas
IV in 1290 released from the jurisdiction of Uclés.

Their military history is linked with that of the Iberian
states. They assisted in driving out the Muslims, doing battle with
them sometimes separately, sometimes with the royal armies. They
also had a regrettable share in the fatal dissensions which
disturbed the Christians of Iberia and brought about more than one
schism in the order. Finally they took part in the maritime
expeditions against the Muslims. Thus arose the obligation imposed
upon aspirants to serve six months in the galleys, which obligation still existed in the
eighteenth century, but from which exemption was easily purchased.
Authority was exercised by a grand master assisted by a Council of
Thirteen, which elected the grand master and had the right to
depose him for due cause; they had supreme jurisdiction in all
disputes between members of the order. The first grand master,
Pedro Fernández de Fuente Encalato, died in 1184. He had had 39
successors, among them several Spanish Infantes, when, in 1499, Ferdinand the Catholic induced the pope to
assign to him the administration of the order. Under Charles V, Pope Adrian VI
annexed to the crown of Spain the three great military orders
(Alcántara, Calatrava, and Santiago) with hereditary transmission
even in the female line (1522). Thenceforth the three orders were
united under one government, though their titles and possessions
remained separate. To discharge the detail of this administration,
Charles V instituted a special ministry, the Council of Orders,
composed of a president named by the king, whom he represented, and
six knights, two delegates from each order. To this council
belonged the presentation of knights to vacant commanderies and
jurisdiction in all matters, civil or ecclesiastical, save the
purely spiritual cases reserved for ecclesiastical dignitaries.
Thus ended the autonomy of the orders, but not their prestige.
Today the Order of Santiago still exists under the Spanish
crown.

Currently there are 35 knights and 30 novices in the order.
Admission to the order is determined if the applicant has noble
ancestry. Until 1653 nobility was checked by looking at only the
paternal grandparents family history. Changes have been made so
that maternal grandparents are included in verifying noble
ancestry. Other qualification to join the order is that the
applicant must be a practicing Catholic, were of legitimate birth
including parents and grandparents, and that they are not descended
from non-Christians.[1] As of
1655 some of the new duties of the order is to defend the belief of
the Immaculate Conception of Mary.[2]

Their symbol was a cross of Saint James, a red cross
terminating in a sword (cross fleuryfitchy in
heraldry), which recalls their title de la Espada, and a
shell (la venera), which they doubtless owed to their
connection with the pilgrimage of St. James.